18

April

Glasgow named world’s Best Small City for hosting sporting events

Glasgow has retained its place in the world’s top five Ultimate Sports Cities of 2018 and also won the award for the world’s Best Small City for hosting sporting events.

The announcement took place at an award ceremony in Bangkok where the SportAccord Convention is taking place. The SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards are the internationally recognised and longest-established rankings of the world’s top sports hosts. The have been held every two years since 2006 when they were founded by SportBusiness International.

Glasgow was nominated in further categories including Best Marketing/Branding, Best Venues and Best Legacy. The Best Small City category is for cities with a population of less than 1.3 million – Glasgow’s population is less than half of that, at around 600,000.

Since hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014, Glasgow has welcomed the World Gymnastics Championships in 2015, World Badminton Championships in 2017 and will host the inaugural 2018 European Championships this summer. Looking to the future, the city will host the European Athletics Indoor Championships and European Short Course Swimming Championships in 2019 and the World Men’s Curling Championship in 2020.

Glasgow is also a host for UEFA European Championships competition in 2020. The city will continue to hold regular gymnastics, cycling and swimming championships and mass participation sport events, such as the Great Scottish Run and Womens’ 10k.